Day 22: Chuck Norris Runs a Hostel

Hiked 11.0 miles, staying at Laughing Heart Hostel in Hot Springs.

The warm night last night have way to thunderstorms this morning.  It was warm last night and I had left my tent flaps open for ventilation.  In the wee hours of the morning I heard the rain start and had to scramble to close up my tent and about five minutes later my alarm went off.  Just as I got out of my tent to get the bear bags it started coming down in buckets.  In torrential downpour like that it is difficult to take down your tent and keep the inside dry.  I swear my tent bag gained 5 lbs of water.

It was raining hard so everyone just started walking as soon as they were ready.  Like always the day we head into town is mostly downhill.  We started out finishing climbing the mountain we started last night and in the rest of the 11 miles there was one mini mountain for about a mile.  Of course as soon as we packed up and started hiking the rain let up...

There were some really neat cloud formations though.   There was fog but only in small areas.  You could look out and see small clouds sitting on a small portion of the side of a mountain.  They looked like little lakes and ponds.  I wish I got some pictures but I'm relying on Why Not's camera and it's not waterproof so she wasn't using it today.

We got a little trail magic on the way into town, someone left a bunch of snack size chips in a bag.  Yum!   About a mile from town it started pouring again and we walked into the hostel a sopping wet bunch. 
Hot Springs is one of the few towns directly on the trail.  There are actually AT symbols embedded into the sidewalk.  It is a small town of about 500 people.  Around this time it is filled with hikers.  There is a festival this weekend so it is even more packed than usual as groups of hikers bunch up waiting for that.  We aren't planning on staying, we haven't heard great things and that is a lot of zero days in a row.  We did decide to take a zero tomorrow though.

Arriving at the Laughing Heart Hostel

Drying out tents after last night's rain

Chuck Norris and Glinda

The lodge at Laughing Heart

Room at Laughing Heart

When we got to the hostel we picked up packages.  My parents have lent me their camera so I can can now take my own pictures again!  They also included some goodies in the box, thanks!  Srocket's mom and boyfriend both sent care packages too so between those three things we have a lot of delicious things to eat up before we hit the trail, good thing we have a planned zero!

The hostel is managed by a pair of hikers: Chuck Norris and Tigger.  Both are awesome people and they run a really cool hostel.  They started only a year ago but before that they spent three years shirking people around on the PCT.  They had a van and every season they would wash it clean and any hiker that they picked up would sign their name on it.  Really sweet idea.

We spent the afternoon doing the primary tasks of town stops: laundry, showers and food.  There is a tavern here that has about 50 kinds of beer so we went there for lunch and a drink.  While in town we ran into POM, Giants Bane and Sassafras.  We also saw ET who we haven't seen since the NOC and Moose who we haven't seen since Tray mountain!  Everyone is doing well and loving life.

Out to lunch with Glinda and Tigger

In the afternoon the weather cleared up and we laid things out to dry and then hung around and relaxed.  We caught up to the other beeline here, apparently he has been pissing people off coming into the shelters late at night and making lots of noise.  Sullying my good name, grrr.

For dinner we went to the Iron Horse, another of the four restaurants in town.  The beers were good and the food was delicious.  We ran into Redspecs who we had met at Standing Bear Hostel.  He grew up in East Germany and has been taking the new found freedom after the fall of the Berlin wall to explore the world.  This is his first time in the US.  He was a very interesting fellow to talk to.  We hope to see him again.